Шинээр гараагаа эхэлж буй тоглогчид NHL-ийн тоглолтод эсрэг багийнхаа хаалганд олон оноо цуглуулж, хүчирхэг тоглолт үзүүлсэн тохиолдлууд цөөнгүй байдаг.
NHL-ийн түүхэнд шинээр дебют хийж буй тоглогчид өөрсдийн багтаа асар их тус хүргэж, эсрэг багийн хамгаалалтыг сандаргасан олон жишээ бий. Тухайлбал, 1977 онд Филадельфия Флайерсийн довтлогч Ал Хилл Сент-Луис Блюз багийн эсрэг тоглохдоо 5 оноо авч, хет-трик хийсэн нь лигийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн өндөр үзүүлэлтүүдийн нэг юм. Түүнчлэн 2016 онд Торонто Мэйпл Лифс багийн эсрэг Остон Мэттьюс 4 гоол оруулсан бол 2019 онд Райан Полинг мөн л Торонто Мэйпл Лифс багийн хаалганд 3 гоол оруулж, буллитээр ялалт авчирч байв.
Хаалгачдын хувьд ч гайхалтай гарааг эхлүүлсэн тохиолдлууд бий. 2014 онд Сан-Жозе Шаркс багийн хаалгач Трой Гросеник Каролина Харрикейнсийн эсрэг 45 хаалт хийж, дебют тоглолтдоо “шоу-аут” буюу гоол алдалгүй тоглолт үзүүлсэн бол 2019 онд Колорадо Эвеланш багийн Адам Вернер Виннипег Жетс багийн эсрэг 40 хаалт хийж, багтаа тус хүргэж байжээ.
Зарим тоглогчид карьерийнхээ туршид ганцхан удаа ийм амжилт үзүүлээд мартагдсан байдаг бол зарим нь лигийн шилдэг од болон төлөвшсөн байдаг. Эдгээр дебют тоглолтууд нь багуудын хувьд санаанд оромгүй сорилт болдог бөгөөд NHL-ийн түүхэнд үргэлж сонирхолтой түүхүүдийг үлдээсээр иржээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
If there’s one thing every NHL fan agrees on, it’s that anyone who bangs on the glass during play should go to jail. But if there’s a second thing, it’s that our favorite team is always getting lit up by some random rookie playing his first career game.
You know the drill. You settle in to watch a game, only to notice a player on the other team doing the old solo lap initiation. Immediately, you get that sinking feeling. Players making their debuts always seem to have magic powers that turn them into a cross between Bobby Orr and Jacques Plante. But only, it goes without saying, against your team.
Or do they? It turns out some teams have a stronger claim than others when it comes to this stuff, as I learned by going through all 32 teams and searching for the most productive games anyone had ever had against them in their NHL debut.
A few quick ground rules: These are regular-season debuts only, not playoffs or (obviously) preseason. And we’re not counting those first few games in 1917 when the league was brand-new and everyone was technically debuting. Sorry, fellow olds.
Other than that, any debut by a skater or goalie is fair game. Let’s find out how bad your team has really had it when it comes to these punk kids.
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks have only given up multiple points to a debuting player five times, and two of them were Nathan MacKinnon and Anže Kopitar. With apologies to Brian Gibbons and David Oliver, I think our winner here has to be Vancouver’s Jason Jaffray, who had a goal and an assist to lead his team to a 3-2 win in 2007. He had only nine other points in an NHL career that lasted three teams and four seasons.
Boston Bruins
Hmm, debuts against the Bruins, eh … Does this guy count as obscure?
No? Then we’ll have to go with one of the two players to ever debut against Boston with a multi-goal game. One of those is John Ferguson Sr., and I’ve made enough jokes at the expense of that family over the years. So let’s go with Greg Adams, who had a pair against the Bruins in his 1981 debut for the Flyers.
Which Greg Adams, you might ask? Uh, the one who wound up on the 1988-89 Canucks.
Buffalo Sabres
Derek Stepan had a hat trick in his debut against the Sabres in 2010. If you’d prefer somebody a little bit more obscure, we can turn to our first goalie, as we remember the night in 2002 when Washington’s Sébastien Charpentier debuted with 38 saves in a 3-1 win. It was one of just 26 games — and just six wins — Charpentier managed in a three-season NHL career.
Calgary Flames
I’m trying to figure out my favorite part of Kings defenseman John English debuting with three points against the Flames in 1988: that those points accounted for 75 percent of his career total of four, that he probably didn’t earn one of the three stars because the game finished 9-7 and three players had at least five points, or that the guy’s name was Johnny English. Yeah, it’s the last one.
Carolina Hurricanes
On Nov. 16, 2014, the Hurricanes faced Sharks rookie Troy Grosenick. They couldn’t solve him despite peppering him with 45 shots, setting a record that still stands for most saves in a debut shutout.
Grosenick’s performance earned him a start in the Sharks’ next game, in Buffalo. He gave up three goals on 13 shots and was sent back to the minors. He didn’t return to the NHL for six years, and that shutout would end up being the only one of a career that featured just four big-league games.
Chicago Blackhawks
The honors here go to Montreal winger Alex Smart, who had a hat trick and added an assist for four points against the Hawks midway through the 1942-43 season. Was that your all-time favorite Alex Smart game, or was it one of the other seven?
Colorado Avalanche
With apologies to 26-year-old Ducks rookie Alex Hicks, who scored two of his 25 career goals in his debut against the Avs in 1995, I think we have to go with the 2017 game that made us all briefly think the Devils’ Will Butcher was going to be the next great offensive defenseman.
Columbus Blue Jackets
It took Hurricanes rookie Brad DeFauw just 13 minutes to score his first NHL goal. It took just 44 minutes after that for him to score his second. It took him seven games to get his third. He’s still waiting on the fourth, and considering the first three all came in the 2002-03 season, I don’t love his odds.
Dallas Stars
The Stars don’t seem all that interested in playing today’s game. They’ve never allowed more than two points in a debut, and even the list of two-pointers includes decidedly unobscure names like Shane Doan, Anthony Cirelli and (from the North Stars days) Adam Oates and Kevin Stevens. Let’s go with Jaroslav Hlinka, who debuted for the Avs on opening night in 2008 and assisted on a pair of Paul Štastný goals, arguably the highlight of his only NHL season.
Detroit Red Wings
You can argue he shouldn’t have been a rookie, but it was his NHL debut, so we’ll go with Sergei Makarov and his goal and two assists in 1989. What do you think the final was in that late-80s game between the defending champion Flames and the high-scoring Wings? It was 10-7. Or as we called it back then, a defensive battle.
(And if you insist on a more obscure name than the Hall of Famer, the only other three-point game in a debut against the Wings was from the Rangers’ George Allen in 1938.)
Edmonton Oilers
It turns out Duane Sutter is the only player to ever debut against the Oilers with a multi-goal game, thanks to scoring twice in three minutes back in 1979. He’s not all that obscure, though, so let’s remember the time Toronto’s Garret Sparks shut out the Oilers, cementing himself as the Leafs’ can’t-miss goalie of the future.
Florida Panthers
The stories we’re telling today span many legacies, but could I interest you in a Manny Legace? (Crickets chirp, tumbleweed blows by.) Anyway, he stopped 49 of 50 shots in his debut, helping the Kings steal a point in a 1-1 tie in Florida in 1998.
Los Angeles Kings
The Kings are good at the “fall victim to an impressive debut” thing, but not so much at the “obscure player” part of the equation. Their record for points allowed in a debut is the three they gave up to Kirill Kaprizov in 2021, and for saves it’s the 46 by some kid named Marc-André Fleury back in 2003. So instead, let’s go with the two points they gave up to defensive defenseman (and recent senior front office adviser) Marc Bergevin in 1984, only so I can take the mandatory cheap shot about how he didn’t throw any pucks into his own net.
Minnesota Wild
I kind of love this one: In their 25 seasons, the Wild have only ever had one player debut against them with a multi-point game, and it was a defenseman who only had three points in his entire NHL career. If you knew that was Calgary’s Mark Cundari in 2013, you’re either Mark Cundari or you’re lying.
Mark Cundari got his eight-game NHL career off to a hot start with a goal against the Wild in 2013. (Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today Sports)
Montreal Canadiens
Only three players have had three-point debuts against the Habs, and only one of those has come since 1946. That one was in 2003, when Rangers rookie Dominic Moore had three assists in Montreal. I think my favorite part of this game is that one of the points came on a power-play goal by Chris Simon that was also assisted by Alexei Kovalev, and I desperately want to know what that special teams meeting looked like.
Nashville Predators
Every Preds fan knew what was coming as soon as they saw the headline. For the rest of us, let’s just take a moment to remember the time Fabian Brunnström looked like the next Mario Lemieux for one night.
Only three other players have had multi-point debuts against the Predators: Jake DeBrusk and Charlie McAvoy in the same game in 2017, and noted offensive threat Matt Martin in 2010.
New Jersey Devils
What’s the difference between a great debut and the greatest debut? A few inches can be enough, especially if you’re Canucks goalie Mike Fountain. He debuted with a 40-save shutout against the Devils, which would be the only one of his 11-game career. But it was almost so much more: Late in the game, Fountain took a crack at the Devils’ empty net and just missed scoring the insurance goal in his own debut shutout win, which I believe would have made him commissioner.
New York Islanders
The Islanders have mostly dodged any ridiculous debuts, although they did give up two goals to the Kings’ Pavel Rosa in 1998, which is impressive since he only scored five in his entire NHL career. But let’s turn to some recent history that I have zero recollection of: the night Senators rookie Kevin Mandolese debuted with 46 saves on 48 shots, outdueling Ilya Sorokin in a 3-2 shootout win. So far, it remains the only win of Mandolese’s three-game career.
New York Rangers
Only two players in NHL history have ever made their debut with a four-assist game, and they both came against the Rangers. The first was from the fantastically named Red Wings rookie Dutch Reibel way back in 1953, while Minnesota’s Roland Eriksson repeated the feat almost exactly 23 years later in 1976.
Ottawa Senators
The obvious pick here is Auston Matthews’ four-goal debut, although that one isn’t exactly obscure. So let’s throw an honorable mention to Bruins defenseman Jarno Kultanen, who debuted in the 2000-01 season opener and posted three assists in a 4-4 tie. It’s the only other three-point debut anyone has ever had against Ottawa. And it was the only multi-point game of Kultanen’s career, which lasted three seasons and saw him finish with 13 points.
Philadelphia Flyers
Heading into their 60th year, the Flyers have had 294 skaters make their debut against them, and only one has scored multiple goals. That would, of course, be noted 1980s sniper Dave Archibald, whose pair of second-period goals weren’t enough to keep his North Stars from a home loss.
Pittsburgh Penguins
A word of advice for the Pens: Stop letting the Habs debut goalies against you, since you’ve already been shut down by Ken Dryden, Carey Price and Jacob Fowler. Also, watch out for this Ralph Barahona kid, who’s going to score 100 percent of his career goal against you in his March 1991 debut. Which is to say he scores twice.
San Jose Sharks
The Sharks have had it pretty good against debuting skaters, having never allowed a multi-goal game in their 35-year history. So let’s go with a goalie, and remember the Laurent Brossoit game in 2015. In the penultimate game of the season, Brossoit debuted for the Oilers with a record-tying 49 saves. It was almost worse: He actually had a shutout going midway through the third before the Sharks rallied for a late win.
Seattle Kraken
Today’s especially useless trivia: Nobody has ever had an assist against the Kraken in their debut game, which is the same as the number of goalies who’ve started their debut game against them. Two guys have had goals, though: Beckett Sennecke last year, and Martin Pospíšil in 2023. We’ll give Calgary’s Pospíšil the edge since his Flames actually won.
St. Louis Blues
Congrats, Blues fans. It’s not often you get to claim the spotlight in historical lists, but you get the crown today: You’re the only team to ever give up five points to a player making their NHL debut.
That would be Flyers forward Al Hill, who celebrated Valentine’s Day in 1977 by scoring on his first shift, potting another goal minutes later, then adding three assists while playing on a line with Bobby Clarke. Oh, and he fought too, so make it a Gordie Howe hat trick. All for a guy who’d play eight NHL seasons without ever having more than 26 points in a year.
(And we need an honorable mention for Stanislav Chistov, one of only five players to ever debut with a four-point game. That one also came against the Blues.)
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning are another team that can’t really claim an extensive history of obscure debuts. They’ve only given up multiple points to three debuting players, and one of those was Moritz Seider. But the other two, Florida’s Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, did it in the same game, most of that while playing on the same line in a third-period comeback.
Toronto Maple Leafs
I’ll admit, this surprised me: In their over 100 years of history, the Maple Leafs have had over 500 players debut against them, including Gordie Howe, Henri Richard, Sergei Zubov and Dylan Larkin. But only one of those players has ever scored more than two points in their debut.
That would be Ryan Poehling, who debuted for the Habs in the final game of the 2018-19 season by scoring in each regulation period and then adding the shootout winner. Seven years later, Poehling is on his third NHL team and has never scored more than 12 goals in a season, just slightly off the pace of 246 he set us up for on that night in April 2019.
Ryan Poehling beat Frederik Andersen for the shootout winner in his debut on top of scoring a hat trick. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Utah Mammoth
The NHL says Utah is a brand new team with no history from the Arizona days, and we’ve got no reason to doubt them. So congratulations to Maxim Tsyplakov, whose goal in his 2024 debut makes him the only player to ever record a point against Utah in their first NHL game.
Vancouver Canucks
It turns out the only player to have a three-point debut against the Canucks was Justin Williams in 2000, which may have been a subtle omen about how Game 7s were going to go in Vancouver over the next decade or so. Among the seven other multi-point debuts, only one player went on to score more than 100 career points, and in a fun twist, that was Barry Pederson, who the Canucks should definitely trade for.
Where were we? Oh right, an obscure guy. I thought our answer might be goalie Ron Loustel, who made 41 saves against the Canucks in his only NHL game, but it turns out that those saves came against 51 shots, which would explain the 10.00 career GAA. So let’s go with John Rogers, a 1970s North Stars forward who had two points in his debut in Vancouver, including half of his two career goals.
Vegas Golden Knights
Vladimir Tkachev was a Russian winger who briefly played for the Kings in 2021. He had two points, both of which came against the Knights in his debut thanks to primary assists on power-play goals by Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty. He played three more NHL games and was never seen in the NHL again, presumably because the Kings told him he couldn’t just feed future Hall of Famers all day long.
Washington Capitals
Despite barely even being a functional hockey team for the first decade or so of their existence, the Caps have only surrendered one three-point debut in their history, and that one came on opening night in 2000. Kings rookie Éric Bélanger got the nice assignment of centering Luc Robitaille and Ziggy Palffy, and the line got on the board just 90 seconds into the game. That night put Bélanger on pace for a 240-plus point rookie campaign, but he fell just short, finishing with 21 points instead.
Winnipeg Jets
Finally, we turn to the Jets, and the night in 2019 that Colorado rookie goalie Adam Werner made his unexpected NHL debut after an early Pavel Francouz injury and stopped all 40 Jets shots in 59-plus minutes on his way to an impressive albeit unofficial shutout. That earned him the start in the Avs’ next game, in which he gave up five goals on 13 shots, and he has never been seen in the NHL since.
